Objective
To compare the ultrasonographic findings of chronic lateral epicondylitis of elbow with partial tear of common extensor tendon before and after prolotherapy. Method: The subjects were 12 cases of chronic lateral epicondylitis with partial tear of common extensor tendon, which were confirmed by ultrasonography. We examined the common extensor tendon with ultrasonography at initial visit. After injecting 15% dextrose solution monthly for five times, follow up ultrasonography was performed one month after last injection. Results: Before prolotherapy, every case had anechoic focus without normal fibrillar pattern, which represented partial tear of tendon. Seven cases showed focal or diffuse hypoechoic foci with loss of normal fibrillar pattern of tendon, which represented tendinosis. After prolotherapy, initial anechoic foci were changed to smaller size with diffuse fibrillar pattern inside in 6 cases, to the same the sized hypoechoic foci with diffuse fibrillar pattern inside in 2 cases. And a few fibrillar pattern were seen within the initial anechoic focus in 1 case and most of anechoic foci were filled with fibrillar pattern except small anechoic foci in 3 cases. Conclusion: Prolotherapy can help the recovery process of chronic lateral epicondylitis. And ultrasonography can be a useful method to evaluate the therapentic effect of lateral epicondylitis. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2004; 28: 88-93)

Objective
To determine the effect of prolotherapy on lateral epicondylitis, and the difference of treatment effect according to the findings of ultrasonography. Method: The subjects were 84 patients who were diagnosed as lateral epicondylitis. The pain score was evaluated by using VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) before treatment and 1 month and 6 months after the 3rd injection. Ultrasonography was done to 49 patients who were suspicious of tendinous tear. Results: In the comparison of the VAS before treatment and after the 3rd injection, it was 6.79⁑0.88, 2.95⁑1.90, respectively, which demonstrated statistical significant decrease (p＜0.01). We found more significant reduction of VAS in the subjects without tendinous tear (7.08⁑0.91 to 2.16⁑1.57) than those with partial tendinous tear (6.90⁑0.93 to 3.67⁑1.76) (p＜0.01). Among 71 patients whose symptom was improved after the treatment, 57 patients (80.2%) demonstrated sustained improvement at 9 months and 14 patients (19.7%) relapsed at 9 months. Conclusion: Prolotherapy is an effective treatment method in the lateral epicondylitis of elbow. Ultrasonography could be a useful diagnostic method which could predict the effect of prolotherapy. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2002; 26: 764-768)